Sep. 11, 2009

ADHD And The Brain's Reward System

New research says that people suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are lacking in certain brain proteins essential for experiencing reward and motivation. Writing this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers report on a brain-imaging study that used used positron emission tomography (PET) to examine the brain's dopamine-mediated motivation/reward system. The researchers found that ADHD patients had lower levels of dopamine receptors and transporters in two brain regions, the accumbens and midbrain. We'll talk with Nora Volkow, lead author of the report and Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about what the findings might mean.